How Is This Possible? Only 62 Percent of Air Force Planes are ‘Mission Capable’

I’m a former Army soldier, and we were used to having weapons like M-240B machine guns out of service or a wayward Humvee on the fritz. As a light infantry officer, I never dealt with significant end items unavailable for long periods. But the Air Force is different. We are talking about complicated airframes with finicky computers and software that constantly needs upgrades and engines that aren’t working right.

That’s not a surprise to anyone who has worked on airplanes. Extensive maintenance, repairs, and downtimes are just a fact of life. But what is surprising is the latest study on Air Force readiness.

U.S. Air Force Problems: You Will Be Upset to Hear the Study’s Findings

Defense News took some publicly available Air Force data and crunched the numbers. You’ll be aghast at what they found. Around four out of ten Air Force airplanes are not able to fly. 

This means that only 62 percent of airplanes are mission-capable at any given time. 

They are out of service for many different reasons, and this is a shock to people who believe that the service branch can bring pain to the enemy with U.S. fighters and bombers anytime it wants.

The Air Force only has 5,025 different aircraft in its entire fleet. This is the least number of birds in 78 years. 

It is difficult to believe that many aircraft cannot fly. 

We all know the threat from Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. Without a fully functioning Air Force, the United States cannot meet these challenges from great powers that are becoming more aggressive.

What If Nuclear Weapons Can’t Be Delivered from the Air?

The United States needs as many airplanes ready to go at all times. That means stealth fighters or bombers that can always launch or drop nuclear weapons.

 The Commander-in-Chief depends on his nuclear triad 24/7. If bombers cannot perform the nuclear mission, there is a terrible problem.

Stealth Fighters Are Needed Everywhere, Particularly in the Indo-Pacific

Plus, fighter jets are needed in East Asia. The Air Force sent four F-22s each to bases in Guam, Okinawa, and South Korea throughout 2024. It will need to do so this year, too, since threats overseas have not abated. China has two stealth jets, and it is working on a sixth-generation fighter. It’s the same with Russia.

Readiness Rates Seem to Go Down Every Year

The problem is acute and not improving. “The Air Force’s average mission-capable rate was 67 percent in fiscal year 2024, down from nearly 70 percent in 2023 and 71 percent in 2022. Historically, rates of 75 to 80 percent among individual aircraft types have been deemed acceptable,” as reported by Newsweek.

It doesn’t seem that Donald Trump’s national security team is aware of this problem. The Secretary of Defense is focused on the Southern Border with Mexico and eliminating “wokeness and DEI” from the military. Secretary Pete Hegseth has outlined his 17 items of priority and increasing aircraft availability for the Air Force is not one of the specific points on this list.

In Trump’s first term, Secretary of Defense James Mattis wanted to solve the problem, but he did not serve long enough to fix it. Mattis worked toward always achieving 80 percent Air Force readiness.

The Air Force is now going to have to examine this study and attempt to replicate it to see if they come up with the same numbers. But let’s say the problem is not as bad and only 25 percent of aircraft are unavailable. That still means that 1,256 aircraft would be out of service as you read this article. That is simply unacceptable.

Old Airplanes Are Being Cannibalized

Mission capable rates are getting worse. One of the problems is that airframes are simply too old. Look at the B-52J Stratofortress. It was never meant to fly this long, and the Air Force thinks it can grace the skies for several more decades. 

Many of the original parts suppliers have long shut their doors. That means the Air Force technicians must cannibalize parts from the retired B-52s. It is necessary to raid the Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona for old components.

My Personal Expertise On This Issue: I Have Seen This Problem Up Close

I once gave a speech to Air Force personnel at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. I discussed how airmen should have better leadership from their non-commissioned officers to increase unit effectiveness and morale. I used the base’s squadron of CV-22 Ospreys as an example of how airmen must remain vigilant to keep the platform in the air.

Afterward, one NCO said, “Great speech, but we don’t have any spare parts, and a lot of the Ospreys just stay on the ground for a long time.” 

The Air Force may be aware of the problems, but many of these generals and civilian leaders are in Arlington, Virginia, at the Pentagon – thousands of miles from the airplanes that must fly daily. They do not experience the problems that pilots and airmen do at bases worldwide.

This study should be a wake-up call to Capitol Hill policymakers and the Trump administration. Hegseth wants a more lethal military. He should start with airplane readiness. 

No lethality exists when airplanes are grounded, and nearly 40 percent of the force cannot fly.

About the Author: Dr. Brent M. Eastwood

Brent M. Eastwood, PhD is the author of Don’t Turn Your Back On the World: a Conservative Foreign Policy and Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare plus two other books. Brent was the founder and CEO of a tech firm that predicted world events using artificial intelligence. He served as a legislative fellow for U.S. Senator Tim Scott and advised the senator on defense and foreign policy issues. He has taught at American University, George Washington University, and George Mason University. Brent is a former U.S. Army Infantry officer. He can be followed on X @BMEastwood.